Do you think games will be strictly Digital soon?

[marvelvscapcom2]

Do you think the days of hard copy will eventually be distant memory for us all to reminisce upon. DLC and Digital download slips being sold at game stores instead of all the plastic and discs. A piece of glossy paper to put on a shelve instead of the beautiful cover arts we know and love.  Much less costly, probably easier for the companies. But really sad for us collectors.  Do you fear this day as much as I do? 

[gf78]

I think it is inevitable.  There will come a point in time where like music, everything will be download only.  I don't agree with it or like it, but who knows where my mindset will be 10 or more years down the road when it is the reality.  I might not even give a shit about video games by that point.  I just try not to think about it because it bothers me and ruins my enjoyment of what I have now. 

[necrosexual]

i don't know... the american internet landscape has to improve first. sure a lot of us have access to the internet (87%) but the speeds are usually pretty slow, with <1%  having gigabit internet speeds.
and iirc, <20% even having 60mb/s speeds.

in other words, right now, it's not feasible to me, and clearly devs know this, else, we'd be at all-digital already. i argued this last gen, when people contemplated if ps4/xbone would be digital only, and lo and behold, i was right.

so until the usa gets its shit together on internet speeds, i don't see this happening. it'll happen quicker in the EU countries, asia, but not in the usa until 60mb/s is at least standard, with most metro areas having 1gb/s speeds.

[gf78]

i don't know... the american internet landscape has to improve first. sure a lot of us have access to the internet (87%) but the speeds are usually pretty slow, with <1%  having gigabit internet speeds.
and iirc, <20% even having 60mb/s speeds.

in other words, right now, it's not feasible to me, and clearly devs know this, else, we'd be at all-digital already. i argued this last gen, when people contemplated if ps4/xbone would be digital only, and lo and behold, i was right.

so until the usa gets its shit together on internet speeds, i don't see this happening. it'll happen quicker in the EU countries, asia, but not in the usa until 60mb/s is at least standard, with most metro areas having 1gb/s speeds.

I agree with you on the US internet speeds sucking balls.  But something else is at play because many games see physical release in the EU and Japan but not in the US.  Recent examples include Infamous First Light, Ratchet & Clank Quest for Booty and Bloodborne Game of the Year Edition.  As far as I know, Japan is lightyears ahead of us in internet speeds, yet most of their games are released on disc while we get a crappy download.   

[ignition365]

It's not just download speeds too.  You have disc space limitations.  You also have companies that choose to have bandwidth caps where you only get a few hundred GB per month.

Unless the data cap thing goes away, I find it too hard to believe we will go strictly digital.

[necrosexual]

i don't know... the american internet landscape has to improve first. sure a lot of us have access to the internet (87%) but the speeds are usually pretty slow, with <1%  having gigabit internet speeds.
and iirc, <20% even having 60mb/s speeds.

in other words, right now, it's not feasible to me, and clearly devs know this, else, we'd be at all-digital already. i argued this last gen, when people contemplated if ps4/xbone would be digital only, and lo and behold, i was right.

so until the usa gets its shit together on internet speeds, i don't see this happening. it'll happen quicker in the EU countries, asia, but not in the usa until 60mb/s is at least standard, with most metro areas having 1gb/s speeds.

I agree with you on the US internet speeds sucking balls.  But something else is at play because many games see physical release in the EU and Japan but not in the US.  Recent examples include Infamous First Light, Ratchet & Clank Quest for Booty and Bloodborne Game of the Year Edition.  As far as I know, Japan is lightyears ahead of us in internet speeds, yet most of their games are released on disc while we get a crappy download.   

i think the japanese are more willing to go out and buy games tho? the country has a very 'traditional' outlook, i suppose? not sure.
americans are willing to jump on board with new ideas (compared to the japanese) so while most americans with decent (read: 10 mb/s or better) internet are willing to hop online anyway (i've met younger people who have downloaded entire games on 4g mobile fucking hotspot before)... i don't know. there are a fuckload of game shops there, and they do pretty well. and i don't know the landscape there, obviously, but americans have a huge mistrust of corporations... not unwarranted, mind you, a lot of them engage in horrid anti-consumer practises. everyone has a beef with at least one big-box company... walmart, gamestop, best buy, amazon, target... name any retail store that sells games and there's at least a small group of people who hate them for whatever reason, and somewhere deep in their 'terms of sale' there is some anti-consumer clause. it might be buried deep, but it's there.

not only that, but there's probably an anti-distributor clause deep in there, as well. again, i don't know japan's landscape. i don't know how their businesses work, but retail space competition is fierce here and i can see why some companies won't bother releasing a physical format if the competition is too fierce, if shelf space comes too expensive. how many times does a new release not even get the box art facing outward at gamestop? how many times is only its spine sticking out with the rest of the games that are lettered E-R? in what videos i HAVE seen of japanese shops, they seem to have more room in general, and when they don't, everything is spine-only. it seems fairer, then.

and also, day-1 sales matter more there than here. in japan, day-1 sales are everything... after week 1, sales drop off a ledge. it's more steady here.

japanese people also may not have the time americans do to search through the PSN store for new titles. which could be a big contributor. if japanese people don't hop on PSN shop as often, then those titles would be missed. but they can stop by a game store on the train ride home. sure, they could go home and jump on PSN, but... the thing is, is from WHAT I UNDERSTAND, and this might be outdated, but from what i understand, most japanese people don't use credit cards often. so they'd probably stop by anyway for the PSN shop card for 2000 yen or whatever. so i imagine, they see more benefit in advertising a physical copy (since those people would stop by anyway) and then... why buy a psn card, over just buying the game on a physical format?

i mean, as someone who goes into game shops, it's not like i see advertisement for digital-only titles all over the place. of course i don't. gamestop doesn't earn much cash from digital-only.
if i were someone who went on the psn shop a lot, tho, i'd probably just use a credit card... probably a different one than the one tied to my bank, maybe a reusable card i can load cash onto, but i'd not bother buying the psn cards over and over... which means i would never go into a game shop, which means the doubleslap of advertisement (the physical release reinforcing in my mind to buy it with the psn card) would never happen. the benefit isn't there in the USA,  because we freely use electronic cards over cash... japan does not.

...
this got a little... sidewinded, but that's all i've got on the subject. there might be more reason, but i'd imagine it's some combo of these factors. the japanese culture is very traditional/not many people use electronic cards over cash/game stores that sell the psn cards get more foot traffic that ends up buying physical media over the digital currency/no time for workers there to slog through psn shop when they could just pop in a store on the way home and grab a game (just like most people would do if you had a game store en route to the way home, i'd imagine)

It's not just download speeds too.  You have disc space limitations.  You also have companies that choose to have bandwidth caps where you only get a few hundred GB per month.

Unless the data cap thing goes away, I find it too hard to believe we will go strictly digital.

i forgot about this because i don't live in an ISP monopoly area so ofc both ISPs in my area are quick to shout NO DATA CAP NO CONTRACTS PLZ BUY US 60MB/S PLZ
i remember my dad arguing in favour of data caps lmao, back before things were... so big.

until console hard drives are bigger than 1TB, until data caps, until speeds, until until until.
the reason PC gets away with this is really obvious, imo. PC isn't wireless, most people who game on PC regularly have good cash (/live in good areas with good internet). with PC, you can have any size HDD you want. and multiples. but in reality, a lot of PC owners dont have optical drives (i sure as fuck do not lmao) and SURE as fuck not a bluray drive and most PC gamers (other than enthusiasts) are probably all playing MMOs/MOBAs or a choice few other titles, most of which are online-only... so they'd not benefit much from a disc anyway.

[kashell]

i don't know... the american internet landscape has to improve first. sure a lot of us have access to the internet (87%) but the speeds are usually pretty slow, with <1%  having gigabit internet speeds.
and iirc, <20% even having 60mb/s speeds.

in other words, right now, it's not feasible to me, and clearly devs know this, else, we'd be at all-digital already. i argued this last gen, when people contemplated if ps4/xbone would be digital only, and lo and behold, i was right.

so until the usa gets its shit together on internet speeds, i don't see this happening. it'll happen quicker in the EU countries, asia, but not in the usa until 60mb/s is at least standard, with most metro areas having 1gb/s speeds.

I agree with you on the US internet speeds sucking balls.  But something else is at play because many games see physical release in the EU and Japan but not in the US.  Recent examples include Infamous First Light, Ratchet & Clank Quest for Booty and Bloodborne Game of the Year Edition.  As far as I know, Japan is lightyears ahead of us in internet speeds, yet most of their games are released on disc while we get a crappy download.   

Fatal Frame V suffered from this, too. That one was a real kick in the gut since that series is so underrated.

I doubt we'll have the digital era only soon. Luckily, if/when it does happen, I'll have huge backlog of stuff to finish.

[ignition365]

I live in a big city.

We have 2 (technicallly 3, but the 3rd is restricted to traditionally spanish speaking areas and I know nothing of the service) ISPs.  AT&T with 45Mbps 300GB data cap.  TWC with 300Mbps and no data cap.  TWC will burn through AT&T's data cap in 8000 seconds.  That's a little over 2 hours.

[insektmute]

It really depends on whether Microsoft, Sony, and/or Nintendo create conditions that facilitate it. Right now, all of them lack sufficient infrastructure to make it work efficiently, and the interfaces of their storefronts are pretty terrible, both in terms of finding games and keeping track of existing purchases. There's also the long-term concern of what happens to those games, and your ability to re-download, once a console is discontinued.

On the PC side, it's already happened - you really can't find many fully offline retail games anymore, and most retail games require activation on Origin, Uplay, or Steam, and so the included discs are basically worthless. Download speeds are super quick considering the size of most games, library management is simple, updates for games download without prompting, you can freely backup your games to physical media, prices (particularly on Steam) are drastically lower, and there are no 'generations' to be concerned about.

It's always possible that console manufacturers will simply force it next gen, and most will simply go along for the ride even if it's rough going at first, but I don't think there's any question of it being inevitable at some point

[gf78]

It really depends on whether Microsoft, Sony, and/or Nintendo create conditions that facilitate it. Right now, all of them lack sufficient infrastructure to make it work efficiently, and the interfaces of their storefronts are pretty terrible, both in terms of finding games and keeping track of existing purchases. There's also the long-term concern of what happens to those games, and your ability to re-download, once a console is discontinued.

On the PC side, it's already happened - you really can't find many fully offline retail games anymore, and most retail games require activation on Origin, Uplay, or Steam, and so the included discs are basically worthless. Download speeds are super quick considering the size of most games, library management is simple, updates for games download without prompting, you can freely backup your games to physical media, prices (particularly on Steam) are drastically lower, and there are no 'generations' to be concerned about.

It's always possible that console manufacturers will simply force it next gen, and most will simply go along for the ride even if it's rough going at first, but I don't think there's any question of it being inevitable at some point

Long term concern is exactly my main problem with digital-only games.  What happens when Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo/Whoever decides to can that software/service/game?  I'm not exactly filled with confidence at this point in time, especially given how many games we have seen over the last ten years either stop being supported or just completely wiped off the face of the digital map.  P.T. - even though it was a demo - was unceremoniously deleted from the digital storefront.  Project Spark will have it's final cord cut on 08/12 with all user-made content not on your system being lost forever.  How many iOS and Play Store games have we seen  just be deleted and no longer available?  Sure, you probably only paid $2.50 or less for them, but what happens when the consoles out there where you paid $60 or more for a game just decide to remove it? 

There are no assurances.  Nobody has stepped up and flat-out said "These games will be archived and you can download any past purchases whenever you want."  Nobody has said that.  Nobody will step up and say "Yes, you need to activate this game online, but when the time comes that it is "retired" from the market, we will release a free offline activation key so you can keep playing as long as you want."  The closest we have gotten is Phil Spencer stating that with Project Scorpio and beyond, if you want you can still fire up that old copy of Quake or Doom (for example).  But as much as Microsoft backpedals and "slightly alters" what they have gone on record saying, I don't trust that any more than thinking a lion wouldn't eat my ass if I jumped into it's zoo habitat!

[necrosexual]

i forgot to mention PC can also get away with this because it's not a monopoly rule.
ANYONE could usurp steam's throne if steam got too authoritarian with their platform. anyone could run in and take that crown. GOG could do it. anyone could, and order would be restored

can't say the same for closed microsoft/sony/nintendo architecture

honestly, i'll not move forward if gaming goes digital, personally. i don't care for digital games, so, yeah. i won't bother.
there's a fuckload of titles i still want for xbox, 360, ps2, ps3, ps4... i could go further back, too, if i wanted, but many of those are way expensive so they're not on my radar.

[blackhearted]

PC is pretty much already there. Console will be too, eventually. It's only a matter of time. And that's kind of a shame as i like my shelves of physical console games.

I live in a big city.

We have 2 (technicallly 3, but the 3rd is restricted to traditionally spanish speaking areas and I know nothing of the service) ISPs.  AT&T with 45Mbps 300GB data cap.  TWC with 300Mbps and no data cap.  TWC will burn through AT&T's data cap in 8000 seconds.  That's a little over 2 hours.

I wish we had options like that here. Where i am the best we can get from TWC, or from any ISP for that matter, is 50mbps.

[burningdoom]

I think it is inevitable.  There will come a point in time where like music, everything will be download only.  I don't agree with it or like it, but who knows where my mindset will be 10 or more years down the road when it is the reality.  I might not even give a shit about video games by that point.  I just try not to think about it because it bothers me and ruins my enjoyment of what I have now.

Music isn't all digital, yet. I still buy all my new albums on CD. And there's plenty still coming out on vinyl, even.

[theprestige2000]

I think there will always be a small subset of games released as physical medium, if only to cater to people like us.  We are already seeing new games programmed for legacy cartridge systems.  Sure these are small home brews now, but eventually it could be a fully formed niche market.  Just look at the comeback vinyl has made.

[maximo310]

I think physical will always exist for dedicated amount of people. However, I do think its too early to try pushing people on console to digital only given how people still care about ownership and how bad internet still is in the U.S.